A lowly researcher finds himself subject to the forces of the Russian security service and a flawed justice system. oDR is pleased to present the second part of exclusive extracts from Zoya Svetova's "Finding the innocent guilty". Read Part I here
A lowly researcher finds himself subject to the forces of the Russian security service and a flawed justice system. A trial is abandoned after word leaks of a jury minded to acquit; upon resumption, a new hand-picked jury comes to the opposite conclusion. This Kafkaesque nightmare is the basis of
Hazing of new recruits is infamously widespread in the Russian army and families of men who have died find their struggle for closure hindered by military cover-ups and ineptitude. The campaigning organisation Mother's Right Foundation has been keeping records of these incidents for many years. He
Russia has taken seventeen years of WTO negotiations to get to a stage that most candidate countries reach after six. Now, with the country finally on the verge of joining, there is no sign of any consensus at the top, write Rihards Kols and Nicolae Geaman.
On the eve of Presidential elections, Dmitry Medvedev has sprung to life and inserted political distance between himself and Putin. Polls show Russians would like both leaders to stand for election, and to choose between them, but such a democratic development would be highly unusual for Russia, w
Russian “political technologist” Gleb Pavlovsky is considered a master of political intrigue and backstage games, yet on April 27 found himself dismissed as a Kremlin advisor. His fall from grace was reportedly linked to indiscreet comments made about the 2012 presidential elections (and supposedl
The campaign to give Soviet Jews the right to leave their country brought two diasporas and a world superpower together in an unlikely alliance. Yet while it was a brilliantly fought battle, it could hardly be described as a total triumph for human rights, writes Oliver Bullough.
Arguments over the benefits of opiate substitution therapy versus abstinence as the most successful way of dealing with drug addiction are not confined to one country. But in Russia the attitudes of both professionals and society to addiction are harsh and uncompromising, as well as an infringemen
In an interview with journalist Olena Tregub, political scientist Andreas Umland argues that Ukrainian integration into the European mainstream is of crucial importance, both for Ukraine and the EU. In his view, alignment with Europe should become Ukraine’s top priority.
The author reported on the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and from on Fukushima in 2011. The silver lining of Chernobyl was that it really did ignite the process of glasnost. Unfortunately, though much needed, that is unlikely to happen in Japan because of the grip of the "nuclear village" on Japanese
Igor Kon, one of Russia’s leading intellectuals and one of the founding fathers of Soviet sociology, has died aged 82. He was a veritable polymath whose interests ranged from history to sexology, a branch of science he set up in Russia, often in the teeth of considerable harassment and opposition.
